Can tire shake knock a 'glide band loose? ***problem solved****

Anyone ever heard of tire shake knocking a 'glide band off the adjuster? I was helping a guy with his brand X nitrous car (full chassis, 700", 3 stages, glide, 34.5" hoosier & 36" goodyears).

1st TNT "blind" bottle pass with the 34.5's it shook it's nuts off, but never really tried to hook until he pedaled it.......trans was OK. 2nd TNT bottle pass next day with the 36's & tighter shocks it shook less & hooked hard. During the launch with the nose still in the air it suddenly zings the motor off the revlimiter & falls on it's face......first gear is no more.

But after pulling the 'glide apart the owner found nothing was broken, the band was just sitting in there loose. Nothing was wrong with the band, the lining, or the adjuster hardware. It was just sitting there loose.

I guess tire shake might not be the only cause. The 1st stage is an aggressive/lean 300 shot (I asked but he wouldn't set it lower), maybe that plus a 700" motor was too much even with the best 'glide parts?

So anyone ever have a band pop loose without any damage?

Never heard of that exactly but I know tire shake does some weird stuff.

In my opinion...if the band struts are fully seated and the band is set at about 3 turns out....the shake should not make it happen, unless the adjuster was not tight.
Tire shake will break converter sprags..and rear end gears (please don't ask how I know...) but I can not see how the band strut can come out, if the case is still intact.
Could be one of those unsolved mysteries....
Thanks,
Keith

Twilight Zone do DO do do, do DO do do, do DO do do.

When asked the trans guy wasn't 100% sure he remembered to lock the adjuster, but when pulling it apart the owner checked & the adjuster was in fact tight.

or the band stretched a little and was loose enough to get shook off............

richter69 wrote:or the band stretched a little and was loose enough to get shook off............

I guess that could be a possibility too.

It's a Kevlar band, but I don't know the maker. One thing the car did do that I didn't think was exactly "normal" was in park & neutral (when reving the engine) the car would try to rock/creep foward a lot more than expected. Could the band cause that if adjusted too tight?

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:

One thing the car did do that I didn't think was exactly "normal" was in park & neutral (when reving the engine) the car would try to rock/creep foward a lot more than expected. Could the band cause that if adjusted too tight?

Dave,
I think that this was most likely because of the clutch clearance in the high gear drum. With the tighter clearance, it will make the car rock in park and neutral.

You didn't say what type of case or the type of adjuster pin. I would assume that it was one of the beefier case, but the stock cases can flex at the adjuster, but usually they will crack the case. There are harder adjuster pins that are available to help prevent the pin from bowing.

85montess wrote:...........You didn't say what type of case.........

It's an aftermarket case & roller tailshaft (Dedenbare or Reid).

New info learned today after a call from the owner. After taking a second look at everything in the trans it bent both the adjuster & the servo piston. So apparently the hardware on both ends of the band took a beating, but somehow the band it's self came out OK.

They replaced the bent crap, adjusted everything & it appears to be working OK now. It doesn't rock, & the brake holds good.

Now if I can just talk him into backing down the first system a little, and cranking up the second a little, this thing might be kinda fun to play with......even if it is brand X crap.

Well it happened again.

Went with the guy to Dallas to test & it appears to have knocked the band off the adjuster (or servo) again. Burnout went fine, backed up fine, great line pressure, & the transbrake held great. But when he released the brake the car kinda lurched forward slowly then the engine RPM shot to the moon for a second before he lifted a little & pulled high gear.

Got back to the pits & now you could once again crank the band adjuster in a bunch hitting nothing. Don't know if it matters but after looking at it again it's actually an ATI case.

Damn time wasting pain in the ass.

I'm no expert here by any means but a guy I run TS with up here kept having problems with his trans (Abruzzi PG best of every thing) Went through it 3 times with the same result every 2 or 3 runs. Changed out the trans case (original was new ATI) never had another problem. He's running 6.60's at 208. 2 large systems on a 604 BBF.

Problem solved, all it really needed was a new trans guy.

Turns out the old trans guy had previously decided (without telling anyone) the drum was too scared up & decided to turn it down some with a lathe to smoothe the surface instead of just replacing the drum. He ended up cutting off WAY too much material & with so much less surface area to work with the band just couldn't ever get a good grip on the drum, the band never had a chance of surviving.

The new trans guy installed a new drum/band and like magic the problem dissapeared.

if you cant clean um up with a good scotchbrite pad rubbin I toss um...........

richter69 wrote:if you cant clean um up with a good scotchbrite pad rubbin I toss um...........

With as many fast/race car customers as the old trans guy had (at one time anyway) I would have figured he was smart enought not to cut the shit out of the drum. I guess he just decided to flat-rate the job & screw the guy over figuring he would never find out. Guess that's why he has lost so many race car trans customers recently. From what I hear it looks like he is now back to only doing passenger car shit.